


Burning

by AzureNight



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Heavy Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-07 00:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureNight/pseuds/AzureNight
Summary: For Errorlust week that @rarepair-cult over on tumblr is hosting.





	Burning

There is a crack running through Error’s soul. It hurts him, and day on day, he hides it, putting on a facade for the one he should love but can’t.

No one knows, until someone does, and Hearts looks so worried Error feels shame for not loving him.

“When did this happen? If it wasn’t too long ago then there’s still hope, it’s a treatable illness- please, I can’t let you die!” Hearts exclaims. He’s distraught.

“Two months,” Error admits.

Hearts’ face falls. He didn’t find out early enough. Error’s going to die.

For all the emotion he’s been feeling lately, Error feels strangely numb.

///

“Tell me the truth, Error,” Hearts pleads, holding tightly onto Error’s arm. The touch is like fire and he fights not to flinch. “You’re so secretive, always sneaking around- I can’t- you’re not being fair!”

Hearts takes a deep breath, pulling Error closer, and the hand on his elbow burns and the proximity makes him tense, try as he might to relax. There is too much of everything, there is too much light and sound and smells and there is a scorching fire in his arm that burn hot and painful.

“Please Error I just want to help you. Talk to me, I know you’re scared about the soul crack but we can work it out together and you know sneaking around to find a cure won’t work. I can help you work through this,” he says, and Error screams silently, breathing becoming ragged as he struggles to get away from the hot-iron- _pain_ that Hearts is.

///

“Hey Error? I got you a gift, you weren’t feeling good last night so I though that some chocolate might cheer you up? As a treat,” Hearts offers, kind yet hesitant smile on his face.

Error nods, giving a smile of his own, and if Hearts had truly known him he would have noticed it was fake.

///

A universe is small to a being for whom endlessness is common. The Underground is minuscule, and a house is suffocating. Error tries to ignore the ever present feeling of danger as he feels the walls closing in on him.

“Hey Error, it’s my turn to plan date night, so I thought we could just stay in? A movie, some hot chocolate, some marshmallows, the couch, and some blankets and we’re good to go! Sound okay?” Hearts asks, popping his head into Error’s room. Then he sees the portal to the anti-void and gasps in horror, sadness clouding his expression, “Oh Error, you don’t need to go back there. I want you here, you’re loved, you don’t need to stay there alone anymore.”

One look at Hearts’ earnest face and Error breaks down crying, and despair flashes over his face as he sobs, and wishes that he never met Hearts.

///

Hearts is excited. There’s a spring in his step and he hums a cheery tune as he buzzes around the house. Hearts is planning something, and he keeps opening a box to peek at it’s contents, before snapping it shut as soon as Error walks into the room.

“Hey, let’s go to Outertale tomorrow,” Hearts suggests. It’s Error’s favourite place and there’s a meteor shower scheduled for tomorrow. Everyone will be there, surely. Error cannot say he doesn’t want to go. Not without seeming suspicious.

He dreads when Hearts will pull out the box and get on one knee and taint the stars with the ring inside it.

///

There is a golden ring on Error’s finger. It’s the only one of it’s kind. Utterly unique.

“Why would you spend so much on a dying glitch?” he asks one day. Hearts stops what he is doing to look at Error with hurting eyes.

“Because I love you. Even if you don’t wear it long, at least while you did it was special, right?”

Error looks away, and the familiar shame for not being able to love Hearts as he should comes back.

///

He’s going to die today. It was fated, someone comments snidely, karma for destroying so many universes; for taking all their happiness, he himself would never truly be happy. Hearts screams at them, tells them to be quiet, that they have no right to insult his husband like that.

They’re given a moment alone.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Everything will be okay,” Error says calmly, tone accepting of what would happen.

“It’s not. I was so selfish- I wanted you to love me so badly but you never did. And I made you miserable for it.” There is no point in trying to argue with someone who is correct.

“The worst part is I don’t want you to stop pretending. Even when you’re dying I’m still thinking about myself. Still being selfish.” A tear rolled down Hearts’ face.

Error spent the last year of his life pretending to love someone he didn’t. He can do so for a little longer.

“It’s okay,” Error whispers. For the first time, he’s the one to initiate contact and it burns like fire but he does it anyway. And he pulls Hearts into a kiss. It’s not real. Both of them know this, but Hearts wants it too much to break his illusion and Error is dying.

“I love you, Hearts,” he whispers, and the burning starts to fade and he smiles. For the first time in a year he is truly happy.

And then it is Hearts’ turn to cry, as Error’s body turn so ash, and he swears it burns him when he first touches it.

///


End file.
